Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/203

 The Legend of the Holy Grail. 1 9 1

finding the task of winning the sympathies of his audience a harder one, and under the obligation of surpassing in some way the attrac- tion of the earlier work, commonly tries to do so by the accumula- tion of marvel and fantastic situations. In this cycle, at least, the progress of time is accompanied with a tendency toward wilder and wilder fiction. While the earlier poet was able to be more direct, and more in accord with the manners of his time and the realities of life, his successors become more and more romantic.

(5.) Where the reconstructor works for the people, he is strongly tempted to introduce into the action primitive elements which are already familiar to the people and likely to attract their attention, On the other hand, in his hands the psychology and human interest of the older author is likely to meet with complete shipwreck. From this relation it follows that no rule can be more incorrect than the canon of critical judgment, continually employed even by dis- tinguished scholars, which measures the relative antiquity of two compositions according to the degree of barbarism which the plot may seem to exhibit. To use a figure which I have elsewhere em- ployed, the pure gold of literature, falling into the baser metal of an earlier stratum of thought, ordinarily becomes an amalgam. In this case, the style and sentiment of the piece constitute a much better guide to its antiquity than do the facts of the action.

(6.) Where a work known to be of later date and in general cor- respondent to an earlier production contains certain independent features, the inference must be that these features result from the freely creative activity of the later author. The burden of proof lies on the critic who endeavors to prove the contrary ; and in mak- ing this essay he must appeal to minds likely to be skeptical, and his failure to convince these doubters must be held to indicate the failure of the argument. In general, the existence of a celebrated work, like the appearance of a higher race of animals, has the effect of obliterating the intermediate steps by which it rose ; earlier and inferior works are forgotten and pass away in the new radiance. The development, if it continues, now starts from a new centre ; the lines of tradition converge toward the masterpiece, and are drawn through, as through a ring ; subsequent divergences proceed from the fancy and pleasure of improvers who work on the lines of the new composition, and trust their own invention for its alteration ; it is only in exceptional cases, and particularly where the material has had a long unwritten national currency, that parallel lines inter- weave with the process ; ordinarily, it is useless to search beyond the new creation, or to expect the survival, in its variations, of any ancient remains which may throw light on the method of its produc- tion. In particular, where a generally close connection is admitted,

�� �